Simple French Bread Pizza

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”

-Yogi Berra

Smell the pepperoni & get excited!! This can be yours in less than 10 minutes!

I know, I know French Bread Pizza has been around FOREVER! Given these deeply uncertain economic times, we all need to look for ways to make our money go further without sacrificing and purchasing the cheaper sometimes less healthy foods or blowing our budget on take out.

I’m all for take out or going out but we can’t do that all the time without going deeply into debt.

If you like to order pizza once a week as a treat, try making this super simple, cheap and ready in less than 10 minutes start to finish with hardly any clean up at all, every other week. That’s only twice per month and the $ you’ll save will be noticeable in one month! We have quite a few people in our house and a fairly steady stream of “extra” or “bonus” kids so when we order pizza, it’s not hard for us to spend $65 +. Making our own pizza twice a month saves us about $90!!!

I was thrilled when I realized how much we could trim off our budget with such a simple and delicious meal that can be tossed together in less than 10 minutes! I’ll make this or cut my bread in as many large pieces as we need and have the kids all make their own and pair it with a crisp salad or a big bowl or fruit. It’s a kid favorite, budget friendly, simple and a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Sometimes I’ll make this as the bread to accompany another meal if I feel it calls for cheesy pizza bread. Doesn’t anytime call for melted cheese?

Let’s get to the creation of the less than 10 minute dinner, an old favorite of yours and mine, let’s give a nice warm welcome to:

The Simple French Bread Pizza

You need:

A oven broiler or a Toaster oven ( toasters will force you to make your pieces much smaller, head’s up before you have cheesy mess)

Cookie sheet covered with parchment paper

French Bread ( Healthy Note: you may use a wheat french loaf if you’d prefer or sourdough should that move you)

Cheese (I like a mozzarella and whatever we have in the fridge as filler… usually Colby jack)

When I can get this on sale, I stock up. We love the Ragu Pizza Sauce and I really like that it’s shelf stable so I can ALWAYS keep it on hand for the quick dinner. You can use any other brand or make your own as well. I’ve even used spaghetti sauce in a pinch

Set your boiler to high right now so it gets nice and toasty in there.

Cut your French Bread Lengthwise or for those of you that are living in munchkin land “Hamburger style”. You may cut it into your desired portion sizes at this point so you can make all different flavors with your toppings. If your boring, like my cheese and maybe pepperoni people, I leave the 2 halves alone and just make one extra cheese and the other pepperoni. I cut everything smaller in the end anyway so saving myself a step never makes me sad. Place your French Breach pieces on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Why parchment paper? Because I don’t like to scrub baked cheese. Parchment paper is a gift from the angels for lazy folks who wish to cook or bake, toss and enjoy!

French Bread

I use approximately 1/2 of my jar of Ragu Pizza Sauce to cover both of these pieces.

Gee Whiz Meg, I hate to waste the other half of the sauce. What ever shall I do?

Glad you asked, I knew you were a super saver too, Smarty! Transfer it to a freezer bag or Tupperware and put in your freezer for next time!

Sure, you have to remember to take it out to thaw, but that one small step saves you $!

Cover your French bread with your desired amount of sauce.

I do the handful method for measuring my cheese, I grab a handful and spread it around until I feel like it should cover it nicely. I spread my Mozzarella first, about 2 handfuls per cut 1/2 of loaf and one of the Colby jack. So each side gets about 2 to 2 1/2 cups… do the math, that’s about 4-5 cups of cheese total. You may follow me or just use it a a guideline. Only you know how much cheese is right for you.

Let’s just not forget this is pizza, every part of this is just pain GOOD in excess but everything in moderation too. Be prudent for your thighs too… Swimsuit season is coming! Buy a wrap and take a bite from life instead!

Cheese Glorious Cheese!

Now here’s the hard part… your on your own for just a second. Don’t worry, I’ll be right here. Your going to have some serious choices to make. What do you feel like? Onion? Peppers? Bacon? Tomatoes? Mushrooms? Olives? All of them? The choices are as endless as your pantry and fridge allow.

I like to keep these Hormel individual pepperoni packages in my pantry. The package contains 6 individual packages of mini pepperoni. Each package has a generous portion, perfect for a personal pizza. Plus it can be kept in my pantry so again, this recipe really is simple and quick because everything can be kept easily on hand.

Hormel Pepperoni Mini Snack Pacs

Now you have your pizza all ready to go in the oven.

Place your cookie sheet with Pizza under the broiler and let it do it’s magic!

They will only take a few minutes to cook so stay right there.

Hey you, don’t leave… you can’t go pee or answer that call . You may forget to come back!

Seriously only takes about 2 minutes for these suckers to become a nice golden bubbly melty ode to my intense love for melted cheese. Yum! So Good!

Nice and brown = ready to eat!

Toss a green salad or pair with a bowl of fresh fruit.

All you have to do is cut, share and enjoy!

Dinner is served! Careful HOT & Wonderful!

Took you longer to read this than it’s going to take you to make it!

Please remember to support your local pizza places… they need to pay their bills too! If you frequent a major chain pizza joint, I’d encourage you to please seek out a smaller mom and pop place to try. We all need to support each other’s dreams when times are hard for everyone. The family business needs not be extinct! If you must go out, think local and buy from a smaller place that appreciates your business and remembers your name.

Be kind to you and to your budget, don’t sacrifice taste and traditions but save a small fortune over time by remembering to make your own Simple Easy French Bread Pizza just twice a month instead.

1 comment

I love this and so does my daughter. I think we prefer it better than ordering other than our really LAZY days. We haven’t done this in a while so I’m glad you posted it so we can liven up the dinner menu. = ) When she was little she liked the little ones you make on English Muffins. = )